Letters: Readers discuss underrated Royals, the Johnson County DMV and Trump in Helsinki

Royal target

Our Royals are not an “abomination,” as Sam Mellinger termed them in his July 15 column. (1B, “The State of the Royals”)

If he wants to attack, let him attack the team’s ownership and manager. Our Royals have been continually disrupted by letting some of our best players go and by changing players’ positions. This is upsetting to the team and to us.

Please tell Mellinger to stop putting our Royals down. They are not that bad, and their losses are understandable considering all the shifts and changes that keep happening.

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But if Alcides Escobar and Mike Moustakas go, it would be the last straw. Escobar is the best shortstop ever, and Moose the best third baseman. Second baseman Whit Merrifield deserves more consistency from the owners and manager.

Bonnie Richard

Leawood

License model

No wonder Johnson Countians have such poor service and long lines since there are only two license offices in the whole county. (July 18, 1A, “Long lines, waits anger customers at two area driver’s license offices”)

But it’s even worse in Douglas, Atchison, Wyandotte and Miami counties, which have only one license office each. For some people, reaching these offices must require a lot of driving and inconvenience. And maybe long lines, too.

The solution is to copy Missouri, which has contractors run many of the license offices. These contractors bid for the jobs and are allowed to charge a transaction fee to each customer as their source of revenue.

This has resulted in more than a dozen license offices on the Missouri side of the metro area. I’ve never had to wait more than about 20 minutes at the license office nearest to me in the Northland.

Get with it, Kansas. There’s a better way.

Richard Lovett

Kansas City

On their feet

No one knelt during the national anthem preceding the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. How refreshing. I think it’s safe to say baseball is still the national pastime, the NFL notwithstanding.

Tom Karczewski

Kansas City

No smoke yet

How much longer does special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation need to find the results it is looking for, which have never been explained fully to begin with?

We hear people bash President Donald Trump for his negative comments about U.S. intelligence services, yet this investigation with unlimited resources and money hasn’t found anything to charge Trump with.

If our intelligence services are so great, then why haven’t they uncovered more negative information about Trump, his campaign or his associates? The furor of the so-called independent press over Trump’s bashing of the intelligence services seems to be misplaced based on the lack of actual results from these supposedly best-in-the-world agents.

This is just another example of the losing party and its supporters grasping at straws to do anything they can to slow the progress and growing support of a president they simply can’t stand, regardless of any positive results of his policies.

Remember, elections do have consequences.

Scott Krieger

Kansas City

Turning away

My stomach churned when I looked at the picture of Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer in May signing a discriminatory policy into law while surrounded by smiling faces. (July 17, 4A, “Kansas adoption groups refusing LGBT couples may get state contracts”)

Colyer said it was not about discrimination, but about fairness. No, Mr. Colyer, this is about bigotry against one group of citizens.

Wili McKinney

Lenexa

Group effort?

In regards to Rep. Lynn Jenkins of Kansas: When team members give a pass to their leader who is incompetent, crass and even unhinged only because he is a member of the team, that tells us much about the culture and purpose of the entire team.

Michael Symanski

Overland Park

Truly amazing

President Donald Trump’s performance in Helsinki was simply amazing. Amazing is probably too mild a term. Shocking, disappointing and grossly misguided would be more fitting. No matter the words used, it is clear our president has set a new low in representing the United States before the world.

The president started his European trip by attacking our allies, threatening to withdraw from NATO and then falsely claiming that, because of his demands, our NATO allies agreed to increase their defense spending.

He then went to England and immediately insulted the British prime minister in an interview with the British press.

He knew about the Russian indictments before leaving for Europe, but he waited until he was standing right beside Russian President Vladimir Putin to call the indictments part of a “witch hunt.”

You have to go back to 1938 to find the last time a world leader acted in such a fashion. That was when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich after meeting with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, claiming he had negotiated “peace for our time.”

All we can do is pray that this time the world won’t see another such tragedy.